USDA grants CSU $30 million to help improve local farmers
Colorado State University has been selected by the United States Department of Agriculture to help local farmers improve their businesses.
In partnership with Oregon State University, CSU and the USDA will use the Regional Food Business Center in Colorado to reach small farming businesses with resources and funding to improve their companies.
This partnership will be one of several throughout the country that will focus on helping small farming operations in need.
"The Regional Food Business Centers are meant to be a one-stop shop for any farm, ranch or food business that wants to figure out how to navigate starting or growing," said Dawn Thilmany, co-director of the Regional Economic Development Institute and professor at CSU.
In an announcement made on the campus of CSU, the USDA, members of congress and leadership from CSU gathered to celebrate the $30 million investment rooted in the university.
The goal of the team will be to provide feedback, resources and information to small farming operations that want their business to grow as fast and their crop or livestock.
"Navigating any regulatory environment or market system is really hard and we have some expertise we can help them do that for better and free," Thilmany said.
Thilmany says she used to average one or two calls for assistance or advice per week prior to the announcement.
"Now, I am up to multiple calls a day," Thilmany told CBS News Colorado's reporter, Dillon Thomas.
While people from around the Rocky Mountains will be able to seek out help, Coloradans will have easier access to in-person resources. CSU expects to set up an office for the new outlet in Denver at the CSU Spur Campus.
"There are so many young people that want to farm here," said Stacy Lischka of Poudre Valley Community Farms.
Lischka says she was looking forward to working with CSU to see how her team can better help farmers in northern Colorado.
"We're trying to give them the opportunity to start farms and not have to take one a huge amount of debt to be able to do that," Lischka said.
Poudre Food Partnership's Audrey Snyder Welsh said her peers will be seeking advice and resources from the business center.
"It is going to fill those gaps that a lot of us are going and putting fires out and trying to get access for our producers. It is going to do that in a more efficient way," Snyder Welsh said.
"We are excited with the food business venter to help trickle down the science, the connections and the networks to help out producers access that," Lischka said. "For CSU to be a hub to bring those groups of people together is really exciting."